The departure of Jack Merridew
by Lucyinthesky1996
Summary: My version of Chapter 8. Some Jack/Ralph


**Yeah, so I've been reading/watching Lord of the flies and I love the pairing Jack/Ralph (I call them JALPH XD) and I noticed that in the book and in the 1963 film, Jack gets really upset when the boys refuse to de-nominate Ralph as chief and he actually cries. I thought this would be good for a slash fiction as Ralph has probably never seen Jack cry before. I thought it would reveal a whole new side to Jack. This is an extract from the book which I have edited. This is in Ralph's POV. Enjoy!**

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><p>"Ralph said my hunters are no good!"<p>

I snapped. I knew Jack Merridew was a twat but I didn't think he was a liar.

"I _never_ said that!" I fired right back at him, getting to my feet.

"_I've_ got the conch!" he spat back at me.

I glared at him. Just like Jack Merridew to use my own devices against me.

"Ralph thinks you're cowards, running away from the boar and the beast. And that's not all."

There was a kind of sigh on the platform as if everyone knew what was coming. Jack's voice went up, tremulous yet determined, pushing against the uncooperative silence. But even he knew that he was weakening, that his voice was no longer seen as a stabbing knife, now it was more of a useless pin prick.

"He's like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief." Jack clutched the conch to him. "He's a coward himself."

There was a pause as he scanned all of us, waiting for a reaction. None came. So he carried on.

"On top, when Roger and me went on—he stayed back."

My fists clenched "I went too!"

"_After_" his voice was so smug…so patronizing

We glared at each other through screens of hair. I hated his face…I hated how beautiful it was. _Why_ was he so beautiful? He was a boy who tried to turn everyone against me, who made Piggy feel like an outcast, who seemed hell bent on making my life an absoloute misery…so why, _why_…why did I love him so?

"I went on too," I said, "then I ran away. So did you."

"Call me a coward then."

He turned to the hunters.

"He's not a hunter. He'd never have got us meat. He isn't a prefect and we don't know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing. All this talk—"

"All this talk!" I shouted. "Talk, talk! _Who_ wanted it? _Who_ called the meeting?"

Jack turned, red in the face, his chin sunk back. I wasn't used to shouting, other people weren't used to hearing me shout. He glowered up at me under his eyebrows. This suddenly confused me, as this was neither a smug grin nor a look of anger. He looked – I dared think it – _nervous_. I dismissed that thought immediately. Jack Merridew didn't feel fear. Not anymore.

"All right then," he said in tones of deep meaning and menace, "all right..."

He held the conch against his chest with one hand and stabbed the air with his index finger.

"Who thinks Ralph oughtn't to be chief?"

He looked expectantly at the boys ranged round, who had frozen. My heart sank. Denying Jack Merridew what he wanted was unwise and normally the other boys were quick to follow his orders. I could already see myself and Piggy – banished from the tribe, forced to live a life of bitter fruit and salt water. But to my surprise, there was deadly silence.

"Hands up," said Jack strongly, "whoever wants Ralph _not_ to be chief?"

The silence continued, breathless and heavy and full of shame. I felt a small feeling of gratitude towards the other boys. They still thought me worthy of being a leader. They still trusted me. I knew now, that the day they first made me chief, they meant it. I'd done it. I'd beaten Jack Merridew at his own game. Victory had never felt more satisfying. But when I looked at Jack, it was short lived.

The red seemed to have drained from his cheeks, then it came back with a painful rush. He licked his lips and turned his head at an angle, so that his gaze avoided my eye.

"How many think—"

His voice tailed off.

The hands that held the conch shook.

All of a sudden I felt it. That small withering feeling. Not the feeling of rage or jealousy. I felt what Jack Merridew was feeling that very moment. The feeling of sheer embarrasment.

He cleared his throat, and spoke loudly.

"All right then."

He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet. The humiliated tears were running from the corner of each eye.

"I'm not going to play any longer" he suddenly hissed at me, "Not with _you_."

Most of the boys were looking down now, at the grass or their feet. Jack cleared his throat again.

"I'm not going to be a part of Ralph's lot—"

He looked along the right-hand logs, numbering the hunters that had been a choir.

"I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too."

He blundered out of the triangle toward the drop to the white sand.

I couldn't hold my voice in any longer "_Jack_!"

Jack turned and looked back at me.

For a moment he paused and looked into my eyes. He recognised that look and then cried out, high-pitched, enraged. "No!"

He leapt down from the platform and started storming along the beach, paying no heed to the steady fall of his tears. I left Piggy's side and ran after him, only touching him when I was sure the others were out of sight.

"Jack! _Jack_, stop!"

He did, for a moment. He paused, allowing the tears to fall. I wiped them away desperately, cupping his chin to make him look at me.

_I'd never seen him cry before_

I hugged him, running my hand down his back.

'I'm sorry" by now I was weeping myself, "Please, come back…I love you"

He said nothing but suddenly pulled me closer and we kissed, there under the glowing sun we kissed as if we were starving. I'd never felt it, the feeling of such love. I was only twelve, these things weren't meant to happen when you were twelve. You didn't kill pigs, you didn't hunt for beasts, you didn't vote for chiefs, you didn't kiss boys as if your life depended on it. But it was then, as my tongue devoured the inside of his mouth, that I realised that my childhood was well and truly over.

When he pulled away from me, I didn't stop him. I just watched him as he ran further along the beach and at that moment I realised that it was all over. The boy I once loved was now my sworn enemy and maybe...quite possibly...the death of me.

And until he dived into the forest, I watched him. I just stood there and watched him.


End file.
